Dozens of US nuclear weapons in Turkey could be in question as the NATO allies fight a proxy war in Syria

Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army fighters are seen at a training camp in Azaz, Syria January 21, 2018.
REUTERS/Osman Orsal

The US and Turkey are on opposite sides of a conflict in Syria, with Turkey bombing US-backed forces that helped defeat ISIS.

Turkey has had a growing list of grievances with the US for years, and many have picked up on the rift as Turkey drifts closer to NATO.

The US has dozens of nuclear weapons stockpiled in a Turkish air base, and experts have questioned the wisdom behind that as Turkey appears become increasingly hostile to the West.

The US and Turkey, both NATO countries and allies for decades, began fighting a proxy war in Syria over the weekend.

Turkish jets pummeled US-backed forces in Sryia's north — all while Turkey holds one of the US's most important bases and dozens of US nukes.

Turkey targeted the YPG, a Kurdish element of the Syrian Democratic Forces, one of the largest and most effective fighting forces that the US trained, equipped, and supported with air strikes during the successful three-year campaign to degrade and destroy ISIS' caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

Turkey's motivation to destroy the Kurdish fighters comes from their alleged connection to the PKK, a Kurdish group responsible for terror attacks in Turkey that both Washington and Ankara consider a terror group.

After the US announced, and then walked back, plans to create a 30,000 strong border policing force comprised of the Kurdish and other fighters, Turkey quickly said it would fight against the Kurds.

In the span of a few days, Turkish jets and tanks poured over Syria's border and dropped bombs as artillery pieces shelled the Afrin, where the YPG intended to set up its border force. A spokesman for the SDF said on Monday that the strikes had killed 18 and wounded 23, according to Reuters.

Now it looks like the US could up fighting a proxy war against Turkey, a NATO ally that holds dozens of US tactical nuclear weapons.

US nukes at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey

Flickr/US Air Force

If the US decided to provide air cover for its allies in Afrin, it would likely launch those planes from Incirlik Air Base, which is inside Turkey. Incirlik is a central hub for US air power in the region and the resting place of a few dozen B-61 nuclear gravity bombs with adjustable yields.

Though the bombs are securely confined to the US-controlled side of the base, regularly maintained and looked after, and at little risk of falling into enemy hands, experts have long questioned the wisdom of holding US nuclear weapons in Turkey.

Turkey's drift from democratic, Western-leaning principals into what looks more and more like a religious autocracy has been well documented over the years. Also starting in 2016, Turkey began its drift from NATO and towards Russia.